TWO MALAYSIANS TO FACE TRIAL IN GUANTANAMO

KOTA BAHARU (Malaysia), April 28 (Bernama) -- Two Malaysians, who have been
held in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre since 2006, will be prosecuted soon
for their suspected involvement with terrorist groups.

United States ambassador to Malaysia, Paul Wayne Jones, said Washington had
yet to decide whether to prosecute the duo through the traditional court or
military tribunal, which was often used in war-time situations.

Jones, who is here on a two-day visit to Kelantan (an East coast state),
however, said there was no possibility of them being repatriated to Malaysia to
face charges, adding that the prosecution process would start within the next
few months.

The two Malaysians who are there are still in the category of, we believe, a
case for prosecution against them. There have been a lot of debate in Washington
on how to move forward with the prosecution and the different ways of
prosecuting," he said.

Mohamad Nazir Lep, who went by the aliases, 'Bashir Lap' and 'Lilie', and
Mohd Farik Amin, also known as 'Yazid Zubair', have been linked to Al-Qaeda, and
also Southeast Asia's militant organisation, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).


Both were detained on suspicion of terrorism in 2003, where Mohamad Nazir
was picked up in Thailand and Mohd Farik, in Cambodia. They were transferred to
Guantanamo on Sept 4, 2006.

US intelligence believed that they were part of a suicide plot involving
the hijack of a commercial passenger plane in a second-wave attack after Sept
11, in Los Angeles.

Initially, the two Malaysians were detained as suspected terrorists but
since 2006, they had been classified as "high-value detainees" with 16 others at
Guantanamo Bay.